Blackthorne Boy
by Official Scroll Keeper
Summary: The Gallagher Series from Zach's PoV. How original right? Not. But, hopefully still a fun fic, full of Zach's thoughts and his mysterious clock that makes him tick. Please R&R! Thankies!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Zach, Joe Solomon, or Cammie the Chameleon, although I wish I did. Me and my sister wish we own Zach and Solomon to share.

I know this has probably been done before, but I promise I didn't steal the idea from anyone, although **AMessofPickles**sort of did inspire it with her amazing Kat/Hale fics. Read them if you get the chance. Anywho, this will all be from Zach's PoV. All the times in the books he is around Cammie or any time I have an idea what he was doing when he wasn't with Cammie. I need to re-re-read these books again. :)

Enjoy!

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><p>I watched the girls we were supposed to be following without their knowledge from the park bench. I watched them trying not to be seen. The girl with the dark hair was spinning around smiling while surveying her surroundings as discreetly as possible at the same time.<p>

The other girl seemed tired and a little bit discouraged.

_Well, you couldn't have made it any easier for them. You are sitting in plain sight,_I thought to myself.

But as every spy ought to know, especially us boys from Blackthorne, was that hiding in plain sight was the best possible position.

Suddenly the darker-haired girl hung her arm around her friend and looked right at us.

_Oh no._ I thought. _They've made us._

Beside me, Grant stiffened but only slightly. It would have been imperceptible to anyone but me, and possibly the girls staring at us, who I had been told were almost as good as us.

The other girl just shook her head at the dark haired one and they were on the move again.

For some reason the other girl interested me in a way she hadn't before. She looked as though she had seen more of the world than the other girl.

Not literally. I don't know how far she had ever traveled geographically. However, something in her eyes as she steered her friend away from us, made me wonder what her story was.

Of course that wasn't why I followed her, I followed her because that was my mission. To challenge these...girls.

Grant and me moved through the crowds, laughing as they thought they had made their tails. An older woman with a baby.

The woman, we knew, lived around here and liked to do various outdoor activities which was just a lucky coincidence, I though to myself. For us.

Those girls were expecting friends of Solomon. They would never have suspected teenage boys. Our cover couldn't have been more perfect.

They merged with a group of giggling girls as they descended into the metro station and me and Grant simply followed them. Not even trying to hide at that moment.

We could've been getting on the train. We could've been following the girls they had merged with because we thought they were cute.

We could've come up with a million different cover stories if they had asked us to. And yet, they made it too simple.

We watched as the two girls slipped underneath the escalator and me and Grant sat unobtrusively on a bench in a shady corner.

The train sped away, with the girls previous cover, but the girls just watched for a few minutes before the dark-haired girl came out of hiding, looked around, and ascended on the escalator to the surface again.

Grant stood up and looked from the escalator taking one of our subjects away from us, and then back to the shadows underneath it.

"You go." I told him very quietly. "I'll stay."

Grant nodded and hurriedly left, before the other girl had a chance to see him.

I didn't want to admit it, but I was intrigued by this girl. The one hiding in the shadow.

The Gallagher Girl, I was supposed to be following.

Gallagher girl, quietly, stepped from her hiding place and casually looked for all the world like she belonged there.

I probably wouldn't have taken a second look at her if she didn't have a certain quality. A quality that told me, she knew quite too much for her age.

I knew that, after all she went to for a school for geniuses. She just seemed to know more than, well, than her friend. At least in the ways of the world.

So instead of following her the whole way, I just closed the short distance between us, and pressed the up button on the elevator.

She pressed the up button again even though it was already lit, looked up at me under her eyes, and began to fidget. Only slightly.

"Hey." I said, nodding my head in a greeting.

"Hi." She replied, pushing the button again, avoiding my gaze.

I smiled, might as well have some fun.

The elevator doors opened with their tale tale ding and we both stepped inside.

I casually leaned against the wall, smiling at her as she tried to covertly check me out. In a totally non-interested way, of course. Not.

I realized I should probably stick to my cover before I let the truth about my mission slip out in my know-it-all smile. I needed to throw her off my track, not that she'd ever been on it.

"So. The Guggenheim Academy-"

She cut me off. "Gallagher Academy." She corrected me.

"I've never heard of it."

"Well it's my school." She said, fidgeting nervously and trying to end the conversation. She looked up and down and seemed to be trying to avoid looking at me while simultaneously praying that the elevator ride would end.

"You in a hurry or something?" I asked, trying to make small talk and get her to look at me.

She seemed sweet and knowledgable, but then again she also seemed naive at the same time. Hmm...how can she seem so street-smart, when I know she's not a seasoned operative.

At her school, well, let's just say they didn't send them on any really life endangering missions until they were in their senior year. Some of them didn't even see action until they'd graduated. Still the Gallagher Academy had a stunning reputation, which I'd been able to read all about in my mission folder from Mr. Solomon that had been printed on evapopaper with the instructions to eat it as soon as we had read it. Which actually meant, memorize it the first time through or else.

"Actually I'm supposed to meet my teacher at the ruby slipper exhibit. I've only got twenty minutes, and if I'm late, he'll kill me." She said, answering my question.

"How do you know?" I asked, trying to get her to trip up.

"Because he said, 'Meet me at the ruby slipper exhibit.'"

"No." I smiled and shook my head. "How do you know you only have twenty minutes? You're not wearing a watch." I was trying to point out the obvious while also giving her a clue. Another chance to realize, I was not a normal boy. I was the person she was supposed to be avoiding and she had already slipped up and told me where she was supposed to meet up with Joe.

"My friend just told me." She told a plausible lie, one I might've believed. If I hadn't known better. If I hadn't known she was special and had been counting the seconds in the back of her mind the entire day.

"You fidget a lot." I pointed out, because operatives shouldn't fidget unless it's part of their cover and it was starting to annoy me.

"I'm sorry." She said, even though I could tell she wasn't really sorry. "I have low blood sugar. I need to eat something."

I didn't know if she meant it or not, but I didn't really want to wait for her to have an episode or something, so I handed her my M&M's. "Here. I ate most of them already."

"Oh...um..." She looked nervous, like I was some creep trying to poison her. A perfectly normal reaction for someone who was so abnormal. "That's okay. Thanks, though." She handed the M&Ms back to me and I pocketed them shrugging.

Rule #1: If you tell a lie, stick to it. Didn't she know she should've taken a couple of M&Ms to make the lie look like the truth?

"Oh, okay." I said.

The elevator stopped and the doors dinged open onto the mall where the sun was setting, turning the clouds a brilliant orange-pink.

"Thanks again for the candy." She said, rocketing out of the elevator like a torpedo. "Where are you going?" She said suddenly, spinning around quickly to face me.

"I thought we were going to meet your teacher in the wonderful world of Oz." I said, smirking.

"_We?_" She asked in disbelief.

"Sure. I'm going with you."

"No you're not." She snapped, annoyed now.

"Look, it's dark. You're by yourself. And this_is_D.C. And you've only got," I counted in my head from the time she'd told me she only had twenty minutes to meet her teacher and said, "fifteen minutes to meet your teacher."

Of course she didn't realize I wasn't wearing a watch. Wow, Gallagher girl was not living up to her schools reputation.

"Fine." She said, quickly hurry towards the exhibit.

_It couldn't possibly be this easy. Could it?_I hurried after her.

"You can really walk fast." I said, a little sarcastic sounding in my head. She didn't say anything, didn't even look at me. "So, do you have a name?"

"Sure. Lots of them." She said vaguely.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" I asked, trying to catch her off guard and even taking myself by surprise.

She stopped walking and turned to me. "Look, thanks for the chivalry and all, but it really isn't necessary." She said quietly. She looked down for a second, a little bit of sadness and maybe, regret, in her eyes? Then she looked back at me and her eyes gave me the impression that she was really tired. Weary, was the word that came to mind.

"It's just up here." She pointed to the building she was headed for. She couldn't have made it easier for me if she tried. "And there's a cop over there."

"What?" I asked, glancing at the cop on the street corner, as if I hadn't seen him there all along. "You think that guy can do a better job protecting you than I can?" I smirked inside, knowing she was underestimating me. My cover was intact.

"No, I think if you don't leave me alone, I can scream and that cop will arrest you."

I smiled, but knew this was the time to back off. I didn't need to get picked up by some cop. I still had a mission to finish. Plus I wasn't entirely sure she was joking. I stepped back and smiled at her. Then turned to go.

"Hey, thanks anyway." She told me.

I nodded and watched her walk away. She didn't look back and I realized I still needed to shadow her to the ruby slippers.

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><p>She seemed to be muttering to herself and I knew her comms unit wasn't working. She looked around the great oval room and stepped towards the shoes, inching closer and closer. She seemed to be arguing with herself about something. She stared at the shoes with awe, all the while I knew her thoughts were keeping her alert to her surroundings. Just not alert enough.<p>

Joe stepped out from hiding behind her and said, "You're four seconds late."

She spun around and said, "but I'm alone."

I smirked from my place in the shadows and stepped forward as Joe said, "No, Ms. Morgan. You're not."

I smiled at her and said, "Hi again, Gallagher Girl."

She looked like I'd just given her a round house kick right to the stomach.

"Nice work, Zach." Joe told me.

Praise was rare and since I was feeling fine and dandy, I gave her a cheeky wink. Partly because her shock was sort of cute and partly to tease her.

Then she seemed to recover and said, "Hi, Blackthorne Boy."

I felt my jaw drop as she spoke my "schools" name out loud. She wasn't supposed to know about us.

Joe recovered more quickly than me and said, "very good Ms. Morgan." Then he looked at me and I closed my mouth. "But not good enough." He said as she turned red.

"Your mission was...what?" She asked, disappointed in herself. "To keep us from achieving our mission."

I tilted my head to the side and raised my eyebrows. "Something like that." Then I smirked at her and chuckled. She did not look happy with herself, or me for that matter.

"I thought I could just make you late for you're meeting. I didn't think you'd actually tell me where it was and walk me halfway there."

Just then a group of tourists got between her and me and I slipped back into the shadows and through an emergency exit, the same way I'd come in, after disabling the alarm. Time to get back to Blackthorne.

I knew one thing, I was looking forward to seeing her again. Hopefully she'd be more up for the challenge on her home turf.

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><p>So what'd you think? Zach is sort of hard to write, but I hope I capture their first meeting well. He seems so much more like a kid in "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy" than in the 3rd or 4th book, so I tried to write him that way. He's way cute and fun to write though. I figured he'd be critical of her skills since he'd want her to be as prepared as she could be. Not to mention, if he could beat her, who else could? Tormenting thoughts for a boy with a crush, even if he doesn't know that's what it is quite yet.<p>

Anyways, please review and let me know what you thought. Should I continue?

Thankies,  
>OSK<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, sorry it's been six months. Shortly after I wrote the first chapter of this fic, I had to start getting ready for College and didn't have time to write anything or read anything until recently. So I read the fourth book in the Gallagher girl series again so I could get things as right and as detailed as possible and then I made a deal with **AMessofPickles** that I would update this fic if she worked really hard on updating hers. So you have her to thank for this update and hopefully I won't let it go for six months again, but I make no promises since I start my next semester of College January 9th.

Anyway, here you go. Chapter 2 of Blackthorne Boy.

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><p><strong>Zack's PoV<strong>

As I prepared to infiltrate the Gallagher Academy, in every sense of the word, I thought about the girl I'd tailed successfully all the way to the Ruby Slipper Exhibit. I'd done some digging and come up with basic information on Ms. Cameron Morgan, a.k.a. Cammie, a.k.a. Gallagher Girl. Already her list of aliases was piling up on the record I kept in a filing cabinet in my brain.

She had not been trained or raised the way I had been. That much was for sure. She had grandparents that were not spies in Nebraska and spent her summers with them. I should not have been able to find out that information so easily because if it meant a 16 year old boy could find out...

I did not allow my mind to wander any further than that as I went outside of my barrack and walked over to join a group of my fellow Blackthorne Boys who were each carrying one duffle bag identical to mine. I knew exactly what was inside of each duffle bag and as a plain black van pulled up in front of us and the door slid open, I knew some things would never be the same once we passed through the main gates of our "school."

I climbed in last and slid the door shut, immediately taking in my surroundings. My brain spotted several objects that would be useful in killing an enemy, but I hardly paid attention as my training kicked in. Instead I was looking outside through the front windshield as we waited in the dark of night for the massive gates, topped with barbed wire and electrified to kill, to open.

She lived in a nice, comfy, mansion that people with little clearance to no clearance assumed was a boarding school for rich snobs. I lived in a place I could only eqaute with a highly advanced, top security, military base.

The ride was exactly ten hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty-six seconds with only one stop for fuel and a bathroom break. Not that any of us really needed one. Me and the other boys inside the van, sat there stoically, each of us prepared for anything, each of us not saying anything. Once we had pulled into the front gates of the mansion, past the front guard, the door opened and Dr. Steven Sanders got out of the front passenger seat of the van. I climbed out and waited for further instructions while the rest of the boys filed out behind me.

I wondered in the back of my mind how Dr. Steve could have been so quiet the entire ride. His reputation for being impatient and talkative did not coincide with the man standing before me. Still maybe there are certain times when everyone knows it's best to keep quiet. Dr. Steve was a smart man, despite not being quite what Blackthorne needed as a teacher. Which was probably why he was sent here with us in the first place.

"All right boys." He said, all cheery smiles. "You can leave your bags in a pile here and these gentlemen will be kind enough to take them up to your rooms."

Two men in black stepped forward to await our bags. We left them in a pile without questions then Dr. Steve motioned for us to follow him and we merged into a line as we walked right up the front steps and through the front doors of one of the most secure schools in the world.

The infiltration was that easy.

We turned left in the main entrance and Dr. Steve opened two huge doors. As he did, I noticed the Headmistress of the school, standing at a podium and speaking while every head turned away from her and focused on us.

I was a little surprised at the amount of girls in the school. I quickly picked out each grade. There were the seventh graders, the smallest of the bunch, who seemed to be so surprised they couldn't stop fidgeting.

The eighth graders who were giving us confused looks that said they could not understand what we were doing here.

The ninth graders who couldn't seem to decide whether they should jump to the defense of their school or start to flirt with us.

And then as my eyes reached the tenth graders, they stopped. As we walked past the tables full of girls most of them were frozen in shock, glasses half way to their mouths, bread in their hands, not moving. There was one girl however who moved slightly and that movement caught my eye. This girl had bright blue eyes and black shiny hair and she flicked her eyes up at us as we past them and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion before going back to being uninterested. She seemed to be holding a stack of cards in her hands that she was studying intensely. Then I saw her lips moving and scanned the table around her, wondering exactly who she was talking to.

Dr. Steve walked past us boys as we stood near the front of the hall in plain view of all. I heard him introduce himself and then I saw another girl move. One near the girl with the flashcards. I smiled. It was the Gallagher Girl I'd been following. She was glancing at one of her other friends who looked small enough to be a ninth grader. Next to her was the girl Grant had been following.

Then another girl gestured in our direction and I smirked, leaning against the table behind me and crossing my arms arrogantly. I couldn't help it, I knew she'd seen me. I knew about her. One of her other aliases was something I'd only come across once in my time at Blackthorne trying to find out more about her. The Chameleon. It was a play on her first name and it described her well. To eveyone but me at least. Because to me, she was the only girl that couldn't blend in and be forgetable.

My smirk grew as her eyes stayed on me and I kept staring at her. Your cover is blown Gallagher Girl.

Then we each looked away up to the front table where Dr. Steve was giving a speech on how thankful he was that our two schools had this opportunity. I'd stopped listening, but soon we were being led out of there and back into the main entrance hall by Dr. Steve who was being shown where we would be staying for the semester.

We were in the east wing that seemed to have been recently renovated. I found my bag on the end of bed, only distinguishable because of how I'd packed. My socks were forming lumps on the top of my duffle bag so I knew it was mine. I opened it and quickly hurried to organize my stuff in the drawers. Then I stuck the duffle bag under my bed and waited for Grant to finish as well.

Grant was my best friend and even though there were things that went unsaid between all Blackthorne Boys, him and me had no secrets. Grant knew who I was, as did almost everyone I knew. They all knew Blackthorne was the top recruiting spot for a group called the Circle of Cavan and some boys hoped to be included in this group someday.

As for me, I didn't want to be included for the fact that the leader was my Mom. No sixteen year old boy is going to want to work for his mother. We're meant to rebel. Luckily Joe Solomon had taught me young and I knew what the circle was really all about. At least I knew the basics. They were not good people. They were double agents and were not people to be trusted.

Because this was information I knew, Grant knew it too. So while most boys didn't discuss things like the Circle of Cavan, me and Grant did.

We'd just finished unpacking when Dr. Steve came into our rooms one by one, all smiles and told us to follow him.

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><p>"Knock knock," Dr. Steve said again, pushing open the door to yet another classroom. Then he walked in and said, "good morning, ladies."<p>

I stood between Grant and Jonas surveying the classroom. Then I spotted Cammie and smiled. She slid down in her seat just slightly and this made me laugh a little inside. _Really Gallagher Girl? That's how a chameleon hides?_

Dr. Steve had us introduce ourselves. Jonas got paired with a girl who was on the same track of study as him. I remembered seeing her with Cammie and I realized then how cliqueish even these girls could be. _They may be spies,_ I thought to myself, _but they are still girls_.

Grant was introducing himself and I watched as he walked over and sat down into a seat by the girl he had been tailing. We'd both been doing our research and had found out that she was Rebecca Baxter and her parent's worked for MI6. She was also the Chameleon's best friend and I realized she was also her cover. Most people would look at Cammie and then look at Rebecca and instantly forget about Cammie.

Not me though. I wondered a little to myself why I was so entranced by this girl who by all accounts was simply average. It was my turn to introduce myself and I started walking back between the desks, staring Cammie down the whole time.

"I'm Zach," I said loud enough for the whole class to hear as I slipped into a chair and then I turned to Cammie and said a little softer but loud enough for Dr. Steve to hear, "and I think I've found my guide."

"Excellent!" Dr. Steve said before leaving so that the teacher could continue his lesson.

As soon as the class was over Cammie gathered her things faster than I thought was humanly possible and headed for the door.

I hurried to keep up with her and as I came up behind her I said, "So, we meet again." It was a corny line I know, but I liked the classics. Plus I was trying to hold her attention while she seemed intent on fleeing me.

She didn't say anything but had stopped walking while girls filtered past us in all directions. "So _this_ is the famous Gallagher Academy."

"Yes. This is the second-floor corridor. Most of our classes are down this hall."

I honestly didn't care about our classes. They were simple stuff anyway. Simpler than what we were taught back at Blackthorne, like advanced torture without killing your prisoner. So instead I just studied the girl in front of me and tried to figure out why this sheltered girl seemed to have a wider grasp on the world than her classmates, or as they referred to each other, sisters.

"And_ you're_ the famous Cammie Morgan." I looked at her like I knew more about her than she knew about herself. Like I knew her deepest darkest secrets. Someday, I actually might.

"Come on." She said starting to move again, but much slower. "Culture and Assimilation is on the fourth floor."

The surprised me for a minute, but I kept a smile on my face. Albeit one of disbelief. After all this girl had been polite, but also cold towards me since the minute I'd come here. I stopped walking and said, "Whoa, did you just say you're taking me to _culture_ class?"

I wondered exactly what they were taught in this class. Manners? How to fit in anywhere in the world? I wasn't exactly sure, but this was not exactly what I wanted to be wasting my time on during my Sophomore year of school. Back at Blackthorne I'd be headed to commonplace weapons class right now. Maybe it was a mistake to come here, not that I'd had much of a choice, plus this meant I got to see Joe Solomon without having to escape from Blackthorne without being noticed.

Blackthorne was not somewhere you could simply speak freely.

"Yes." She said simply.

"Boy when they say you've got the toughest curriculum in the world...they _mean_ it." I could tell she caught the sarcasm in my voice. She was so sheltered here. Did they really think anything they taught her here was preparing her for the real world?

"Culture and Assimilation has been a part of the Gallagher curriculum for more than a hundred years, Zach." She said turning away from me and moving away from me like she didn't particulary care if I followed.

"A Gallagher girl can blend into any culture—any environment. Assimiliation isn't a matter of social graces." She stopped and paused as I continued to follow after her. "It's a matter of life and death."

I could tell she was dead serious and I started to believe her for a moment. Until I heard music floating out of the doorway and heard a loud older woman say, "Today, ladies and gentlemen, we will be studying the art of...the dance!"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and leaned down to whisper in Cammie's ear. " Yeah...Life. And. Death." We went inside and the teacher started talking again.

"I have been saving this very special class for the arrival of our very special guests."

Grinning I turned to Cammie and whispered, "Did you hear that? I'm special."

She started a comeback but was interrupted by the teacher. "Oh, Cameron dear, would you and your friend like to demonstrate for the rest of the class?"

This class was ridiculous. Operatives shouldn't need to be trained for situations like this. They should be natural and already know how to assimilate. If they needed training, they'd also need practice which meant more time preparing for missions and possible missed opportunities.

Still it was fun to see Cammie embarrassed the way she was when the teacher asked me to place my hand on the small of her back. I could tell she just wanted to hide. It was what she did; who she was.

She placed her palm in my hand per our instructions. "What's the matter Gallagher girl?" I asked staring down at her. She didn't say anything and I wondered exactly what was going through her mind. She puzzled me. "You're not actually mad about yesterday, are you?"

I could tellfrom her eyes that she was. I couldn't believe it. She was mad because she'd been beaten. If I'd carried out that op in real life she'd have been dead. She should be glad it was just an exercise; she should learn from it and then move on. Instead she was holding a grudge.

"It was a cover, Gallagher Girl. An op. Maybe you're familiar with the concept?" _It was my mission to find and use you. You can't be mad and me for being succesful just because it meant you weren't._

Cammie didn't say anything because at that moment, the teacher came over and pushed the two of us closer together and instead of talking, for the rest of the class, we simply danced the box step. This was our current assignment, and there was no point in doing or talking about anything else, her silence seemed to say.

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><p>I hope you liked this newest chapter. It seemed to me like I kind of got side-tracked near the beginning of this chapter, but I hope it wasn't too bad.<p>

Please, leave me a review and let me know what you thought, what you like, what you didn't like. The reviews will motivate me to continue and I love getting them.

Thankies,

OSK


	3. Chapter 3

All right here is chapter three and I hope you like the much quicker update, if so, please leave a review, I so love getting them.

Also, I just realized I have been forgetting to put up disclaimers on my most recent updates and stories so I will be posting those soon hopefully and here is my disclaimer for chapter three of Blackthorne Boy.

**Disclaimer:** I own absolutely nothing, even most the dialogue used in this fanfic is not my original work. Thank you.

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><p>After Culture and Assimilation, we had P&amp;E, which wasn't all that bad. When I "signed up" for this "exchange program" between "schools," I had no idea they taught these girls personal combat moves. I always figured they learned it at the farm, or at whatever agency they eventually went to work for, if they worked for a legitimate agency of course.<p>

So getting to throw a few kicks and punches around with Grant while still keeping an eye on Cammie and Bex was great.

Then we were released for the day. Me and Grant went up to our quarters to shower and do the homework that had been assigned to us that day. I can only assume Cammie did the same, but I don't know yet, since I haven't had the chance to bug her room.

Who knows, maybe I'll let her keep her privacy.

That night at dinner I was going to sit down by Cammie, but Joe—I mean, Mr. Solomon, came up to me and asked me to walk with him for a moment.

We left the room and entered the entrance hall, standing in a corner near the large front doors.

"What's up?" I asked when we'd made sure we were alone and unobserved.

"Tomorrow morning the tenth grade CoveOps class is going on a little field trip. I just thought you'd like to know ahead of time."

I nodded to thank him for the heads up and then waited to see if he was going to say something else. He looked like he was debating on saying something so I said, "Where might I ask are we going?"

"A little town just down the road called Roseville." He answered.

I nodded and waited for one more second before saying, "Well thank you for telling me. I'm going to go get something to eat now."

"Yes, yes. Please." Joe said waving me back into the cafeteria.

I hurried off to grab some food and then sat down on the other side of Jonas who was sitting next to Cammie's friend Liz. Cammie was on the opposite end of the table and with both her friends and my friends in between us, I had enough space to myself to think.

_Roseville?_ Where had I heard that name before?

All night I sifted through my thoughts, during dinner, after dinner, and before bed, trying to place that piece of information. I usually had perfect recall, something I'd perfected after years of training.

Finally after laying in bed for an hour wide awake, I recalled where I'd heard or rather seen that name before.

It was on an official report in the CIA databases. It had been marked as classified and I'd found it while I'd been digging for information on the infamous Cameron Morgan. I'd found out a lot about her once I'd gotten back to Blackthorne after meeting her at the Ruby Slipper exhibit.

Roseville had been the town Cammie had "initiated a relationship with the subject" in. Not that this had meant much to me at the time. I mean it had been a debriefing. Plus, the questions that had been asked had been completely vague.

All I knew was that Roseville was important in someway and Joe Solomon hadn't just wanted to tip me off to the fact that we were going on a field trip tomorrow. He knew I knew something about Roseville. He'd probably have been disappointed if I didn't, so the next morning at breakfast I sought him out.

He was dishing up a plate of waffles when I approached him, holding my own plate out to get some waffles.

"What happened to Cammie in Roseville? Who was the subject of the CIA's debriefing involving Cammie?"

It might have been a slight trick of the light, but I could have sworn Joe Solomon smiled. Then just as suddenly, the smile was gone, if it had ever been there in the first place.

"Which question do you want me to answer first?"

"Both."

He gave a little sigh and looked around in the reflective surfaces to check for eavesdroppers.

"'The Subject' was a boy named Josh Abrams. He lives in the town of Roseville."

"And what exactly was the nature of his and Cammie's relationship?" I asked.

"She adopted a cover of sorts and they started dating. He found out she'd lied to him and he crashed her CoveOps final exam last semester."

My heart starting to pound a little as my pulse raced through my veins. For a moment I was confused. Why was I reacting like this? This felt like jealousy, but that was a ridiculous notion. I barely knew Cammie.

"That's the story in a nutshell isn't it?" I asked.

Joe Solomon nodded and then said, "So for today's exercise, I want you to keep an eye on her. She did tell the CIA she would not be initiating contact with the subject again and I don't want to make her a liar."

"So what, you want me to tail her? Keep her preoccupied the whole time?" I asked as we both looked over to where Cammie was sitting. She was talking to some girl I thought might be name Tina, but I really only cared about one Gallagher Girl in this room.

_Zach, stop thinking like that._

I turned back to Mr. Solomon and he shrugged at me.

"Just be her partner for today's exercise. Brush passes." He said before I could ask what the exercise was going to be.

"All right. Sounds easy enough."

Mr. Solomon rolled his eyes and said, "Trust me. I've learned anything that involves the Morgan girls is never easy, and Cammie is no exception."

I almost chuckled before I realized he was completely serious. I glanced up at the head table where Headmistress Morgan sat and then back to her daughter.

The girl I thought was called Tina was further down the table now, totally checking me out. I ignored her though and went to sit down by Grant.

After breakfast, Grant and I followed the girls to the elevator that would take us to sublevel one and Mr. Solomon's Covert Operations Class. This was the one class I was excited about at this school.

However the minute the elevator doors opened Mr. Solomon—I just can't call him that—Joe, came walking towards us the rest of the class in tow.

"CoveOps class, let's go." He said, pulling on a jacket.

He lead us back up to the ground floor and out the front doors where we all climbed into the red vans parked outside.

Me and Grant took seats beside Joe and I tuned out most of the conversation up until Joe started talking about what he wanted us to get out of today's lesson.

"Today's about the basics, ladies and gentlemen. I want to watch you move; see you work together . Pay attention to your surroundings, and remember—half of your success in this business comes from looking like you belong, so today your cover is that you're a bunch of privvate-school studdents enjoying a trip to town."

_Easy._ I thought to myself. _This should be easy for her. She's been doing this since she came to this school in seventh grade. _

I noticed Cammie glance at me when she heard we were doing brush passes, but I kept a straight face. This wasn't new information, it was something I already knew. I also knew how to execute a brush pass. I'd be fine. I mean, we'd be fine.

Except when Joe said to pair off, Cammie immediatley looked at Bex, starting to get out of the van.

Joe must have noticed this too because he stopped her and said, "Oh no, Ms. Morgan. I believe you already have a partner."

He look was surprised until she saw me standing behind Solomon. I smiled hoping to come off as friendly, but if the look on her face said anything, I think she was a combination of frustrated with me and nervous when we got out of the van.

"Come on, Gallagher Girl," I said trying to calm down her nerves. "This should be fun."

The grimace on her face told me she thought otherwise.

As she glanced around I sat down on some stairs and said, "So, come here often?" Not that she needed to answer that. I already knew the truth.

"I used to, but then the deputy director of the CIA made me promise to stop."

I laughed quietly. She'd actually told the truth. For a spy, that's a big thing, dropping the cover story, even if you don't think people will believe what you're saying.

As the passes of our game of tag began, I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, basking in the sun's rays.

"So what about you? Exactly where does the Blackthorne Institute call home?"

"Oh. That's classified."

That was the moment I decided I liked annoying this girl. It was cute. Her hands scrunched up into fists for the smallest of moments and she almost looked like she wanted to stomp her foot. Then she stopped herself and said, "So you can sleep inside the walls of _my_ school, but I can't even know where _yours_ is?"

I laughed again at the thought that she still thought Blackthorne was a school like hers but for girls. It was exactly what it said it was. Blackthorne was an _institute_. Like the ones for crazy people, only instead of taking care of us, Blackthorne taught us how to take care of ourselves.

"Trust me, Gallagher Girl, you wouldn't want to sleep in my school." Might as well keep my cover up while she was still naïve enough to believe it.

"What do you mean? Why can't you tell me?"

"Just trust me, Gallagher Girl." I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees and stared straight into her eyes, wanting to know the truth. "Can you trust me?"

She didn't answer me, but she didn't look away either. I saw her struggling with the answer to that question and thought, _good. There is hope for her yet. She knows not to trust people easily. That's a skill that will keep her alive._

Still it hurt just a little bit, that the answer wasn't yes. She was unsure and I wanted her trust. More than that, I realized, against my better judgement and all my training, I wanted to get to know this girl.

Call me a sap, but she intrigued me and I wanted to keep her safe to the best of my abilities.

I heard chatter through our comms units and said, "Solomon's good."

"Yeah. He is."

"They say you're good, too." That surprised her. I should compliment her more often. The look on her face was great.

"Okay Zach," I heard in my ear, "Without turning around, tell me how many windows overlook the square from the west side."

"Fourteen." I said my eyes still on Cammie's. "You know, it's probably a good thing we got to tail you in D.C. If you'd been following me, I probably never would have seen you." _And that would have been a shame_, I thought to myself, studying this girl in front of me, who was making me feel things I'd been taught were weaknesses. Because if you cared about someone, they could be used against you.

Even as I thought this, Cammie turned around and started to walk away from me. That was when Bex who happened to be strolling by with Grant, bumped into Cammie. Then I heard Joe in my ear. "Nice pass, Ms. Baxter," and I realized Cammie was it now, she had the quarter.

I watched her walk down a side street and wondered what she was doing and exactly how I was supposed to fix this. What I'd said had apparently upset her.

Then over my comms I hears someone faint as if in the background say, "Cammie, is that you?"

It was a male's voice and as far as I knew, there was only one boy in Roseville who knew Cammie's name. I felt my blood run cold and I forced myself to walk casually up to a sign that was hanging in the window of the building that was right by the alley Cammie had walked down.

Then I waited.

"Cammie? Are you okay?" I heard the voice again. More clearly this time. That was when I realized the comms units had gone eerily quiet.

Still Cammie didn't say a thing. I debated walking around the corner to initiate an extraction, but knew she'd probably be mad at me for doing it. I couldn't stand here forever though.

They talked awkwardly for a few seconds and then I heard a female voice say, "Josh. Josh, your dad said he could..." The voice trailed off and I looked in the glass windows on the building on the other side of the street to see a girl emerging from a side doorway, looking from Josh to Cammie. "Oh my gosh, Cammie! It's great to see you!"

Even though I knew something was going on between this girl and Josh by the way she looked at him, I was surprised to find she seemed to mean it.

Hadn't Joe said Cammie had lied to these people? And yet, here it was only a few short months later and they had apparently already forgiven her. Remarkable.

Once the other girl got talking about some dance, I knew it was time to go in. Girls like her could talk forever if you let them.

"Cammie, there you are." I said, walking slowly around the corner like I'd just been taking a leisurely walk.

I looked from Josh (What did she see in that guy?) To the new girl Cammie had addressed as DeeDee. "I was wondering where you'd disappeared to." That's right, play it off like you weren't just eavesdropping. Like you don't know who this guy is. Sometimes I thought spies made the best actors.

"I'm Zach." I said, holding out my hand like I was the most normal, private school kid ever.

The other girl got a huge smile on her face and I dropped my hand while Josh looked from me to Cammie and back again, slowly assembling the pieces.

_Come on buddy, it's not that difficult_, I thought to myself.

"Zach, this is DeeDee. And Josh. They're..." Cammie began but trailed off searching for a title for the two of them.

"We're friends of Cammie's." DeeDee said.

Cammie tried again. "Zach and I..." But then she lost it. _Come on, remember our covers are the truth. Or most of it._

"I go to school with Cammie."

"Really? I thought it was a girl's school?" Me and DeeDee were the only conversationalists on this whole street.

"Actually, my school's doing an exchange with Gallagher this semester." I explained.

I noticed Josh staring at Cammie with a slightly pained expression and then I remembered the quarter and thought this was the perfect opportunity to slip my hand into Cammie's. Assert my claim and get the quarter at the same time.

_Assert my claim? What am I? A dog?_ I shook my thoughts from my head and then smiled when DeeDee noticed our hands. Then I realized Cammie hadn't let go.

"Cam," I said looking down at her and her surprised expression. "The van's leaving in ten." Then I nodded at Josh and DeeDee. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too." DeeDee said. I walked away from them and around the corner, taking the quarter with me and quickly passing it off to one of the girls lounging around the square. Then I walked towards the van and got inside mechanically, sitting next to Joe. He looked at me sympathetically for one moment, placing a hand on my knee and giving it a squeeze. The next second though, he was all business and he went back to the brush pass exercise.

Cammie came back to the square and sat down on the benches in the gazebo, staring at the ground until Solomon called them all back to the vans.

* * *

><p>Sorry for any typos. But hey leave a review and let me know what you thought about the characters. Where they in character? I feel like they are so complex. Cammie is easy enough to understand because the books are told from her perspective. And Bex and Liz are easy enough, but Macey and Zach are harder.<p>

Anywho, Thankies,

OSK


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